


Sunny Day

by Katanachan



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson, South Park
Genre: Angst, Based on a Dear Evan Hansen Song, Character Death, Crenny, Delusions, Emotional Manipulation, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lies, M/M, Memory Alteration, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Sad, bunny - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 06:09:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14970740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katanachan/pseuds/Katanachan
Summary: The family is gathered around the kitchen table; Kevin has his arms wrapped around Karen as she sobs quietly against his chest. A hush covers the room as Butters stands up.He scratches at the cast over his forearm, the name ‘KENNY’ written across the plaster.





	Sunny Day

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Violet and Angi for having the conversation that sparked the inspiration for me to write this scene. Aaahhh... I had it stuck in my head and I really really had to get it out. Thank you Djinn for beta'ing it for me as well, you're my heart.
> 
> This is inspired/based on the song, 'For Forever' from Dear Evan Hansen.

The family is gathered around the kitchen table; Kevin has his arms wrapped around Karen as she sobs quietly against his chest. A hush covers the room as Butters stands up. He scratches at the cast over his forearm, the name ‘KENNY’ written across the plaster.  He’s nervous; he can feel the butterflies bubbling up in his chest, threatening to escape out of his mouth should he open it. But there’s something in Mrs. McCormick’s eyes that drives him, that pushes him to open his lips and allow his voice to flow.

“It was the mos’ beautiful day in June I’d ever seen,” he starts, his fingers picking at the little bit of plaster flaking off of the cast. “Kenny said we should go an’ just spend the day together, yanno? Just me and him.”

Pale blue eyes cast down to the floor as four pairs of eyes watch his every movement. Karen’s sobbing has ceased at the sound of her brother’s name, her breath catching in her throat.  Butters can feel it, the excitement vibrating from his toes all the way up to the little hairs on his neck. He tries not to smile, but fails when he imagines the two of them driving along in Kenny’s busted up rust bucket of a truck he’d seen parked beside the house.

“He reckoned’ it was hot enough outside to go get some ice cream. He got rocky road and I got mint chocolate chip.” Butters’ nose wrinkles as he thinks of how the sandy blonde might want to enjoy his ice cream and thinks of the quirkiness that was Kenny McCormick. “He stole half mine, smooshed it together and grinned when I wapped him on tha shoulder for it.” Another chuckle lifts Butters shoulders as he looks up at them, “He didn’t pay no mind tho’, he just kept eatin’ it with that Cheshire grin he had. You know the one.”

Mrs. McCormick nods toward the short boy, “He was a rascal, my Kenny.”

Her response fuels Butters, he can feel his imagination running wild as he pictures what else he and Kenny would have done the day he broke his arm. Absentmindedly, he knocks his knuckles together and licks his lips. “Ah gosh, Kenny ate the whole thing so fast he gave himself brain freeze! It was the funniest thing I’d seen all week.” His eyes dart up to see a warm smile on Mrs. McCormick’s lips. Karen is watching his every movement, absorbing every inch of her brother she can get from his story.

“Well, afta’ that, we kinda just took a walk, yanno? Walked out by Starks Pond; Kenny loved the woods. He wouldn’t shut up about the trees and what kind they were. I mean, golly, he’d point them out and name ‘em all to me.” Blue eyes scan the room, landing on the frame of Kenny sitting on the desk near the window. His perpetual smile immortalized forever in that one moment. He feels a tug in his chest and he himself is mirroring that smile.

“We had a lotta inside jokes, Kenny and I. We just kinda talked about the other kids in school, about how he liked to flirt with them, but he never meant none of it. That was our secret, right? He told me, that he never flirted with people he actually liked, it was all fun and games for him.”

It was Mr. McCormick’s turn to pay attention now, his brown eyes up cast to watch Butters speak. He takes his hat off and holds it over his chest, muttering about how he ‘never knew’ and ‘I just assumed he whore'd around’.

“Well, no sir, Kenny was a good kid,” Butters supplies, the lies running rampant at this point, so why not continue them? It was helping the family and it wasn’t hurting anyone, so why not rewrite Kenny’s image so they can be at peace?  “Sir, if I knew Kenny at all, he was a one guy fella. I mean, he did like that Craig kid. So he was gay, or uh, pan?”

Butters figures it’s easier to go broad, limiting Kenny to just men or women would make it seem more suspicious. But he did know of Kenny McCormick’s famous crush on Craig Tucker, so it was easy to slip off of his tongue. After all, Craig had been devastated at Kenny’s funeral, inconsolable even by his closest friends. At that, the entire family looked between each other, Karen biting her bottom lip, tears forming in her eyes.

“Ken… he told me about how he liked Craig, cause Tricia is my best friend.” She admits, rubbing her eyes with her hands as Kevin pats her hair.

“Yeah, he wouldn’t shut up about how he’d ‘find a way to get in his heart’. Ha… Kenny was determined, that’s for sure.” Kevin quips, busing himself with taking care of Karen so not to cry himself.

Butters nods and continues his story, “We talked about what we’d do afta’ school was done. We wanted to go on a road trip, see all the big cities. Kenny loved watchin’ the stars in the sky and he once told me lights in the city twinkled like them.”  

Butters recalls one of the conversations he overheard between Stan and Kenny in class and repeats the words like a parrot, as if it happened to him. The beautiful musings of a charismatic teen flowing from him, making him feel just as charismatic vicariously through his words.  It makes him feel bold and with that, he flourishes is arms out with a bright smile.

“Kenny wanted ta’ see it all! But he told me, even tho’ he wanted ta’ go, that he wouldn’t go without me.” He ducks his head, a rosy hue to his pale skin, “That there’s nowhere else he’d ratha’ be than hangin’ out with me.” The boy seems bashful for a moment, staring at the handwriting on his cast, tracing the letters one at a time.

Mr. McCormick clears his throat, there’s eagerness in his eyes when Butters looks up to meet them. “What happened next?” He asks, his fingers tightening on the hat over his chest, it’s clear they’re hanging on the boys every words.

“Kenny jumped up!” Butters jumps when he says that, “then he started runnin! ‘Catch me if you can, Buttercup!’ he hollered back at me! And goodness, I bolted after that boy, but he was always so much faster than me.” A giggle falls out between Butters’ lips as his eyes dance with mirth at a fake memory he’s writing right that moment.

“He latched on to a branch of the tallest tree!” His arms lift in his excitement, causing him to wince, as he lowers his arm, he touches his cast and smiles softly. “He climbed and climbed, I ain’t never seen anyone climb like Kenny.”

Mrs. McCormick lifts her hand and touches her husbands, their fingers lacing across the table in agreeing with the statement.

“Now, I tried to follow the best I could, I really did.” He shuffles from one foot to the other, nerves resurfacing as reality and fiction start to blur together. The day he climbed that tree changing in his mind to include one cheeky sandy blonde. He wasn’t alone in the memory anymore, but he could still feel the creeping loneliness, the void that Kenny would leave when he subtracted the falsehoods and was left with the true events of that evening.

“I… I ain’t no good at climbing,” Butters frowns, his eyes moist now. “Not like Kenny, a-and I missed a branch.”  His hand tightens on the wrist of his broken arm, a tear slipping down his cheek when he recalls the ever-growing darkness inside his chest from that day.  “I fell.”

There’s silence in the room, all four McCormick’s stare at the small fragile boy as tears fall down his cheeks. They all assume it’s in memory of their dead son, none of them know it’s in remembrance of the day Butters attempted to end his own life, and failed.

“Ma’ arm was numb and I… I was so scared.” He pauses, a hiccup in his voice and he sees Mrs. McCormick starting to stand from her chair. Butters’ raises his head, a bittersweet smile on his features as he mentally fixes that memory, interjecting a brave heroic boy beside him.

“But, Kenny. He came to get me. Lord, I ain’t never seen anyone but Kenny McCormick storm down a tree as fast as he did! He scooped me up like I was some kinda princess, he asked me if I was alright and I swear, in that moment, I was.”  His smile widens, watching Mrs. McCormick sit back down, her eyes full of emotions and tears brimming, threatening to fall as she covers her mouth. He can picture the sun shining brightly like a halo over Kenny’s angelic features, and almost convinces himself this memory is the real one. “Kenny was a hero. He was always a hero and he was certainly my hero.” Butters adds for good measure.

Another few beats in a silent room and Butters knows the story has come to its conclusion. “Kenny McCormick saved my life that day. His friendship is the most important thing to me, and ya’ll should know he was good people. The world will never be the same with Kenny gone.” Butters feels another tear fall down his cheek, “I’ll never be the same.”

He can hear the family moving, arms wrapping around him to embrace his small form in the type of familiar love his parents neglected him of all his life. Instead of harsh words and even harsher hits, he’s caressed and loved and he’s thankful for this moment.

 _Thank you Kenny, thank you for letting me fill this void you left behind,_ Butters thinks as he allows the grieving family to hold him as they cry together. _This is all I’ve ever wanted._

**Author's Note:**

> All we see is sky forever.


End file.
